Reliance Jio has reservations over India’s OTT regulation proposal.

According to reports, Reliance Jio, the biggest telecom carrier in India with over 477 million users, has joined the ranks of businesses opposed to the proposed OTT regulation in the nation, along with Netflix, Amazon, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros.

The telecom behemoth stated that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should not authorize OTT content services under the Indian Telecommunications Act, of 2023, according to BusinessLine. Notably, these businesses have consistently maintained that they are not telecom operators and, as such, are not subject to TRAI’s authority because they are OTT service providers.

In its letter, Jio, which reported a ₹6,536 crore profit for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2024–25 (Q2 FY25), said that OTT content services are already subject to Indian regulations under the Information Technology Act, 2000. The business also emphasizes the distinction between Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) and over-the-top (OTT) services. Jio asserted in the report that OTT content providers use the public internet to provide their content, meaning that they do not require a specialized network infrastructure to deliver their services directly to users.

On the other hand, DPOs (such as cable TV, IPTV, and DTH) function by offering broadcasting services via their own or operated specialized broadcasting networks.

These services usually employ specialized infrastructure to transport content and are provided through particular gear, such as satellite dishes or cable boxes.

The business, which just announced a combination with Viacom 18 and Walt Disney, is aggressively opposed to certain recent government actions. For instance, Reliance Jio, which is owned by Mukesh Ambani, opposes the government’s choice to distribute satellite internet spectrum rather than “auctioning” it like the nation’s mobile spectrum does.

Nonetheless, an administrative allocation is supported by Elon Musk’s Starlink and other multinational corporations including Project Kuiper, owned by Amazon, and OneWeb, owned by Airtel.

This development coincides with intense conjecture on the launch of a new “JioStar” platform following the combination of Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema, owned by Reliance. According to JioCinema’s website, the platform was launched in 2016 and as of September 30, 2023, had 33 million daily active users and 237 million monthly active users.

In terms of the market itself, Statista estimates that the Indian OTT video market will bring in $4.08 billion by 2024. Forecasts indicate that the market will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.73% between 2024 and 2029, reaching a total volume of $5.92 billion by that year.